Rescue crew search the waters off of Weed Beach in Darien for a swimmer reported missing from Cove Island Park.

Rescue crew search the waters off of Weed Beach in Darien for a swimmer reported missing from Cove Island Park.

Photo: John Nickerson

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A Darienrescue diver searches the waters off of Weed Beach for a swimmer reported missing from Cove Island Park.

A Darienrescue diver searches the waters off of Weed Beach for a swimmer reported missing from Cove Island Park.

Photo: John Nickerson

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A Darien marine rescue crew searches the waters off of Weed Beach for a swimmer reported missing from Cove Island Park.

A Darien marine rescue crew searches the waters off of Weed Beach for a swimmer reported missing from Cove Island Park.

Photo: John Nickerson

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Darien rescue crews prepare to search for a swimmer reported missing from Cove Island Park in Stamford on Friday, June 21, 2013.

Darien rescue crews prepare to search for a swimmer reported missing from Cove Island Park in Stamford on Friday, June 21, 2013.

Photo: John Nickerson

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A Norwalk marine rescue crew searches the waters off of Cove Island Park in an effort to find a boy reported missing after swimming in the area on Friday, June 21, 2013.

A Norwalk marine rescue crew searches the waters off of Cove Island Park in an effort to find a boy reported missing after swimming in the area on Friday, June 21, 2013.

Photo: John Nickerson

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Emergency officials respond to the report of a boy reported missing after swimming off the waters of Cove Island Park on Friday, June 21, 2013.

Emergency officials respond to the report of a boy reported missing after swimming off the waters of Cove Island Park on Friday, June 21, 2013.

Photo: Lindsay Perry

Stamford police ID Cove Island drowning victim

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STAMFORD -- Hours after being released from Turn of River Middle School for the summer, a 12-year-old boy drowned at Cove Island Park after being swept into deeper water by a strong current Friday afternoon.

The sixth-grader's body was found by fire department divers shortly before 5 p.m. off Cove Island Park after being underwater for three hours.

Police Chief Jon Fontneau said Gross, who was found in six feet of water in a narrow channel of water between the east end of the park and Darien's Brush Island, was rushed to the hospital by paramedics working to revive him.

"Preliminary investigation shows that this is a tragic swimming accident and we will continue to investigate the incident," Lt. Diedrich Hohn said in a release. "The Stamford Police Department expresses its condolences to the family and hope that all respect the family's privacy during this ordeal."

A Brush Island woman in Darien, who lives directly across a small canal from the eastern edge of Cove Island Park, called police at 1:53 p.m. to report that a boy may have drowned.

After hearing the boy's friends calling for help, the woman jumped in the water to help the child but a strong current moving into Long Island Sound kept her from getting to the other side and she was nearly swept down the channel before being pulled ashore by a neighbor, the woman's mother said.

Fontneau said the boy was with two other friends wading in the water near the Holly Pond spillway when he possibly slipped into the water and the current pulled him farther into the water. Fontneau said he did not know if the child could swim.

"She was reporting that several children were in the water struggling," Fontneau said of the Brush Island woman. "Some of the children were calling to her, `call 911, call a lifeguard' so she called 911 and police and fire went into the water."

Fontneau said five other Turn of River kids along with the one who was lost came to the park following a half day of school before they were released for the summer. Three of the kids got into the water and two came out and began yelling for help, Fontneau said.

Hohn said while Gross and his friends were swimming the strong current was giving them some trouble. "Several of the youths had trouble getting back to shore because of the strong current and they noticed that Gross was missing," he said in the release.

Hohn said he too wasn't sure if the boy could swim, but the strong current in the channel would give even a good swimmer trouble.

Lifeguards from Cove Island Park as well as nearby Weed Beach in Darien began skin diving as soon as they heard a child was missing.